Jon Sullivan (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On indulgence: my purpose here today is to join with my Queensland colleagues in this discussion concerning the widespread flooding that has beset much of our state. Before doing so, I want to take a moment, on behalf of all the people in my electorate of Longman, to place on record our sorrow and sympathy for the predicament that our fellow Australians in Victoria face as a result of the recent catastrophic fires. In the preceding condolence motion, many members of this parliament spoke at length with great eloquence, compassion and, in a number of instances, personal experience and knowledge of those fires and of the people so severely affected by them. Like them, I offer our condolences to those who have lost family members, who have lost friends, who have lost much loved pets and livestock, who have lost precious family historical items and documents and who have lost their homes and all of their possessions.

Like the speakers before me, I offer our admiration and respect for the women and men who fought to protect the lives and properties of the people in the communities first endangered and then, in many cases, devastated by the awesome ferocity of the fires. Our feelings are magnified by the knowledge that not only were many of these men and women volunteers but they remained at their posts, helping others as their own properties were threatened and then destroyed. We marvel at the courage and determination of survivors who insist that they will rebuild their communities. I, as part of this parliament and also as part of the government, am committed to ensuring that we do all that we can to provide whatever is needed to help these communities in their recovery, and not to forget them. I should note that such is the extent of the sympathy for the Victorians whose lives have been changed forever by the fires that the flood victims in North Queensland are donating their disaster relief funds to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal. In their estimation, these people are worse off than they are.

Natural disasters are a frequent feature of the Australian landscape. In Queensland, they are regularly the result of destructive winds and flooding rains, of cyclonic activity and/or monsoonal troughs. But, in this case as well as that of the monsoonal trough, cyclones Charlotte and Ellie have also brought heavy rains. Paluma Dam, which is halfway between Ingham and Townsville, and Hawkins Creek, which is west of Ingham, have each received more than 2,600 millimetres of rain since the beginning of the year. In the old system, that is more than 102 inches. The extensive flooding that we have seen in Queensland in recent weeks is unusual only in its extent. More than 60 per cent of the state, over one million square kilometres, has been inundated by floodwaters at one time. Each flood-affected community has experienced flooding before and knows it will do so again.

To say that floods are a regular feature of the lives of many Queenslanders I think in no way diminishes the impact that floods have on our citizens, communities and economies. As of this morning, flood warnings remain current for the Diamantina, Thomson, Georgina, Flinders and Norman rivers, as well as for Eyre Creek. And it is still raining. In the 24 hours to 9 am this morning, Halifax and Lucinda in the Mackay area received just under 250 millimetres, or 10 inches, of rain. Ingham has experienced what may be its worst ever flood—certainly its worst flood in the last 30 years. The Burdekin Dam was at one stage releasing enough water every five hours to fill Sydney Harbour, which will no doubt revitalise advocacy for the Bradfield scheme. Gulf communities have been cut off since mid-January and can expect to remain isolated for at least another four weeks. Throughout Far North, north and central-west Queensland, dozens of vital roads have been closed or are opened only with load restrictions. Many remain closed still.

Estimates of the cost of damage to infrastructure caused by the floods have exceeded $200 million. But, as Queensland’s Emergency Services Minister, Neil Roberts, has conceded, we will not know the true cost of the damage until all the water has receded. So the cost could be many hundreds of millions of dollars more. Stock losses and private property damage will total many millions of dollars.

Many speakers in this place in recent days have called to mind the imagery of Dorothea Mackellar’s famous poem My Country, which I note was originally entitled Core of my Heart. This poem contains not only the oft-quoted lines of ‘I love a sunburnt country’ and ‘Of droughts and flooding rains’ but also the lines ‘For flood and fire and famine, she pays us back threefold’. It is difficult to imagine how the community affected by the Victorian bushfires will reap a threefold benefit. It is also difficult to imagine how the cane farmers on Queensland’s north coast will benefit threefold. But history does show that Australians are a resilient lot. It shows that in Queensland rains that fall on our peninsula in the Gulf region, in the west and in the channel country do bring with them rewards for those who make their living in those unforgiving landscapes.

I join with the member for Petrie in acknowledging the good work that has been done in the flood affected areas by people from the Queensland Department of Emergency Services, the Queensland State Emergency Service, the police and other civilian and government agencies, in particular those who do so on a voluntary basis. This is what this country has been built on: mates helping mates. While they acknowledge that their problems are insignificant in comparison with those of bushfire victims in the south, the people of flooded Queensland do face difficulties in their recovery, and I know that I and other Queensland based members of this place will ensure that their plight is not forgotten.

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